Photos

People who liked this also liked...

A young martial artist seeks revenge on the Ninja who kills his martial arts brothers and teacher. He finds help in the form of a new teacher (who knows Ninjitsu) and new brothers. Together... See full summary »

Chen Kuan-tai exuded incredible power on screen, which his directors used to great advantage in this fight-filled follow-up to the smash hit The Boxer From Shantung -- which culminates in ... See full summary »

The indomitable martial arts team of director Chang Cheh and stunt choreographer Liu Chia-liang continues the compelling saga of Golden Swallow from King Hu's Come Drink with Me in this ... See full summary »

"Godfather of the kung-fu film", Chang Cheh, made this treasured and beloved adventure featuring a sword, training manual, treasure map and a secret message. The kung-fu which ensues is as impressive as it is glorious.

During the late Ming Dynasty a heroic swordsman named Lu Fang (Jimmy Wang Yu) returns from battle to discover that several poor farmers have kidnapped a ruthless local magistrate's only ... See full summary »

An evil gang attacks the Chi school of Golden Sword Kung Fu. One student sacrifices his life to save his teacher and his school, his dying wish is that his son be taken in as a student. ... See full summary »

A dying teacher instructs his final student to check on the activities of five former pupils, each of whom he taught a unique and special style of kung-fu to: The Centipede, Snake, Scorpion... See full summary »

Frequently Asked Questions

User Reviews

THE FLYING DAGGER (1969) has two fine stars in Lo Lieh and Cheng Pei Pei and is somewhat redeemed by a love story in its final third, but remains a lesser effort from top-ranked Shaw Bros. director Chang Cheh that suffers from a run-of-the-mill script about warring clans. As Yu Ying, Cheng Pei Pei is a righteous swordswoman who kills a rapist-murderer in a pre-credits sequence (having gotten there too late to actually prevent the rape and murder), incurring the wrath of the miscreant's father, a villain who heads the Green Dragon Clan and wields some lethal throwing knives. The Clan targets Cheng Pei Pei's family and forces them to go on the run. Eventually, as the beleaguered family members try to protect Cheng's wounded father in a remote inn, the Green Dragon Clan closes in. Only the intervention of Yang Qing (Lo Lieh), a lone knife fighter, on the side of the good guys, prevents total disaster.

The fight scenes involving swordplay and abundant knife throwing are consistently entertaining and occasionally bloody, but rather simply staged (by Tang Chia and Lau Kar Leung) and not terribly imaginative. Fortunately, things take a romantic turn in the final third and Cheng Pei Pei and Lo Lieh begin to share some tender, emotional scenes that distinguish the film from most Cheng Pei Pei vehicles of the period. These are good actors, with strong chemistry, and these scenes managed to finally get me engaged with the film. On those occasions when he had the opportunity to play a romantic lead, Lo Lieh was quite good at it. These two also co-starred in THE LADY HERMIT and their characters were in love there as well. Lo also loved Cheng in GOLDEN SWALLOW (1968), also directed by Chang Cheh (and also reviewed on this site). But in that film, Cheng was a much more formidable character and was more devoted to a rogue hero named Silver Roc, played by Jimmy Wang Yu, which created more interesting layers of escalating dramatic tension than we get in this film.

Shaw Bros. veteran Yang Chih-ching, who normally played older officials or patriarchs in these films, plays the head of the Green Dragon Clan, one of a handful of action roles I've seen him do. (He was only about 50 here.) Ching Miao plays Cheng's father. Various familiar kung fu faces pop up, including Cheng Lei, Wong Kwong-Yue, Ku Feng, Cliff Lok, Wu Ma, Yuen Cheung-Yan, Lau Kar Wing and, in a small role as a fighter for Cheng Pei Pei's clan, David Chiang, who would move up to major roles in Chang Cheh's DEAD END and HAVE SWORD WILL TRAVEL the same year.

On the Celestial R3 DVD of this film, one of the special features indicates that the film was shot in Japan and includes a still showing Mount Fuji in the background. While there are a couple of unusual location shots that could indeed have been shot in Japan (none of which show Mount Fuji), most of the film is clearly shot on the Shaw studio's familiar soundstages and backlots in Hong Kong.

5 of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?